Lobotomy corp, Mercer files
by The pen or The sword
Summary: The manager was rather perplexed the latest abnormality dubbed D-01-73 seemed almost entirely out of place when compared to their more...Colorful residents, still he was determined. He had yet to meet an abnormality that didn't have a pattern, it was simply a matter of figuring it out.


**Lob corp crossover, why? Because I can...**

{Redacted} Could honestly say he was quite pleased with his position as manager, he had yet to fail in meeting the energy quota. There had only been a few abnormal deaths within his facility, and he was doing a decent job of keeping the abnormalities from going rogue. Only one thing bothered him at the moment, the latest abnormality they brought in was...Different. It looked human, now other Abnormalities were humanoid but this one stuck out more to him.

The abnormality looked like a man in his early thirties to late twenties, wearing a leather jacket and plain jeans. His skin had a sickly pallor that usually could only be found on the incredibly ill. Further, it had unnaturally glacial blue eyes, considering the horrifying and bizarre appearances of most abnormalities this one stuck out due to how plain it looked.

Still, that wasn't enough to bother him, abnormalities could come in all shapes and sizes. No, what bothered him most was how it talked, the logs he'd received all spoke of the long conversations they had with the abnormality. How it interacted with them as any average human would, making small talk. Some of the observers had begun to question if the creature was an abnormality at all. He had even started to agree, the abnormality known as Alex Mercer didn't function like the other abnormalities.

It didn't produce energy, it didn't react to personal of different personalities in any meaningful way. The readings he got from mercer didn't even tell him Alex mood. {Redacted} had even tried sending agents to discipline Alex but it had seemingly no effect as Alex would still politely and interact with the people who hit him. No injuries ever appeared on the abnormalities body regardless of the extent/intensity of the discipline. After looking over the agents' report, he assigned the threat level of TETH to Alex Mercer.

{Redacted} Knew he wasn't a good person, he sent his personnel to there deaths just to understand how the abnormalities worked. He tried to justify it as a necessary sacrifice but he knew it was a weak excuse for terrible deeds.

But Alex hadn't killed a single personnel, he was cordial and polite. It didn't seem to affect the mental state of the agents he interacted with, unlike other abnormalities. Seeming almost perfectly normal, thus after the first week, he started to neglect the abnormality. It didn't even seem to require food, despite being there for an entire week it didn't request food. It never asked the agents he sent in for food, instead, it asked for plainly bizarre things. A metal chessboard, dice, cards, miscellaneous entertainment equipment.

When he had sent an agent with food Mercer ate with no fan fair, offering to share its meal with the agent. That had been the first day, he hadn't fed it since. Yet the abnormality didn't request more, so obviously, it didn't require food, or it at least didn't need to be fed with any frequency. Finally, at the end of the first week he went for a desperation move, he stopped interacting with the abnormality all together. In his experience sending no one to interact with an abnormality often garnered results, even if they weren't the most pleasant.

Still, three days into ignoring their newest addition and nothing had changed. Alex still stood leaning against the wall almost unnaturally still, watching the entrance. The cards and chessboard sat untouched on the table, {Redacted} couldn't understand it, why had he been sent an abnormality that didn't produce energy? That didn't seem prone to violence or action of any kind? Pushing the thought to the back of his mind he glanced over the camera feed yet again...except the camera feed to Alex cell had gone red, it was as if some sort of red cloth had been draped across the camera. He reached for his communicator, planning to order an agent to investigate when the camera flickered for a moment. Coming back into focus the camera revealed a strange sight.

Alex cell was now coated in red fleshy growths, orange pustules provided a hellish light to the area. The overhead light had been wrapped in large black tendrils blocking out the artificial light. The walls red coating had large black tendrils growing and writhing across them creating random swirls and images. and leaning at the back of the room Mercer remained in the same spot, seemingly unbothered by his altered surroundings.

He felt the panic rise in his chest preparing himself for whatever was about to happen...Except nothing did, Alex remained leaning against the wall unmoving. He sent an agent to interact with the abnormality wondering what it would do next.

* * *

Jessica was a rather average agent, she had received the same training like all the others. She was the definition of normal in the abnormal job they did. She had black hair and light blue eyes, she could best be described as cute rather than beautiful. Saying that the uniforms didn't compliment anyone's appearance, they were made for safety and efficiency with ascetic flair being the least important aspect of there outfits.

She felt sweat bead down her forehead, she had been yanked from her break to check up on abnormality D-01-73 aka Alex mercer. She knew why she was being sent, she had interacted with the abnormality the most since it's arrival, in hopes of inducing it to give her a gift or bond. It hadn't though she would admit Alex was one of her favorite abnormalities to interact with. His eyes were creepy and he looked sickly but he was so normal compared to the others, he usually greeted her by asking about the weather, her family, what she did in her off time. While she didn't answer he never seemed displeased, and often tried to convince her to play a game of chess or cards.

So her fear may have seemed exaggerated but she'd had other colleges pulled from there breaks for emergency check-ups with other Abnormalities...It hadn't ended well for most of them, that coupled with the past four days of not interacting with the abnormality meant something had happened. Steeling herself she rushed to the familiar cell, entering through the large reinforced doors.

The sight that greeted her was quite shocking, where once there was a plain white room there now stood a large fleshy chamber. The artificial lights had been blocked by black tendrils instead, the room was lit a hellish orange from large orange pustules coating the ground and walls. The fleshy coating on the ground and walls writhed about forming strange pattrns, and standing in the back of the room in his usual spot was Mercer himself.

He looked up from the floor usual grin in place...Except it seemed off, there were too many teeth and they seemed almost pointed. His body language also seemed more aggressive, his shoulders spread farther as fractals and biological shapes seemed to flow across his jacket. His eyes stood out the most though, while they always had a certain inhuman quality to them they now seemed to glow with feral intensity in the darkened room. Ignoring the unsettling sight she pushed forward stepping onto the fleshy floor to greet Mercer.

"Ah, Jessica, it's been a while hasn't it? How is your day treating you? I hope I haven't interrupted anything too important?" Alex spoke cordially, though his voice now contained an edge, an almost mocking tone.

"Of...Of course not, I was just on break. So what is this?" Jessica gestured towards the rest of the room. Alex tilted his head in an almost lizard-like fashion slowly turning it to eye the walls of the changed cell.

"Ah, yes that. Well, I once heard it was polite to give it a week before you settled in, considering all the alone time I've gotten recently I thought Id...Settle in here properly." Alex chuckled his smile seeming to stretch even larger across his face.

"Would you mind...Putting this away?" Jessica asked diplomatically, hoping not to incite the abnormality to attack her. She hadn't expected Alex to actually be dangerous, he had always seemed to normal compared to all the other abnormalities. Yet here she was treating the creature she had casual conversations with only a few days ago as if it were an animal ready to pounce.

"I'll have to decline, I think this gives this cell a cozy atmosphere...Don't you?" Alex tilted his head in that lizard-like manner yet again, clearly interested in her response.

"Of course, I just think management might be...Bothered by it." She explained calmly forcing a kind smile across her face. Suddenly Alex gaze went from the strangely tense animal-like stare to one of crystalline focus. In the blink of an eye, Alex was right in front of her, hands holding her chin forcibly tilting her head up to stare into his cold focused eyes.

"You look like her..." Alex trailed off, seemingly lost in memory before shaking himself from his thoughts. He stepped back seeming perfectly normal, none of the aggressive posture and his eyes had settled back to their disinterested glacial blue.

"Tell management I don't intend to put this back, I'm just making myself comfortable after all" Alex smirked as he resumed his leaning position against the wall. With slightly shaky legs Jessica left the room, vowing to remember despite there actions everything in this facility had the potential for danger. Despite her training, Alex normal mannerism had made her slightly careless around the abnormality. Suppressing her distracting thoughts she went to write her report.

* * *

{Redacted} felt his frustration build, he had been more observant of mercer after that incident. despite disciplinary actions, mercer refused to remove the new growths within his cell and otherwise maintained his normal mannerisms. No sign of the bizarre behavior the agent had listed in her report. No energy or new activity had arisen from mercer since then though agents had found asking about the mysterious "her" Mercer had mentioned resulted in him going silent. No energy, no new developments and more questions about the mysterious entity known as Alex Mercer...

Pushing aside his frustration he redoubled his focus on the newest cell the, they would be receiving another abnormality next week. Hopefully, it would actually produce the energy the company required, unlike Mercer.

Had {Redacted} been slightly more observant he may have noticed the fact all cells adjacent to Mercer were gaining more happiness then they should have. Alas, he hadn't noticed, chopping extra happiness up to improved techniques and technology. Yet the truth was as always far stranger than fiction...

* * *

Little red was incredibly bored, she had been brought to this boring cell three months ago. Since then there had been nothing to do, the humans that came to annoy her were boring and she still hadn't heard hide nor hair of that goddamned wolf! She had hoped after being dragged here that they would bring in that beast so she could finally claim its head and mount it over her bed but that had yet to happen.

Today another boring human entered, a woman with black hair and blue eyes asking some random bizarre and stupid questions. Part of her felt the temptation to throw her ax at the women but that would be unprofessional and for all her flaws she was a professional. The women quickly finished her questions, seemingly annoyed by Little reds lack of response. After a good ten minutes of silence, the annoying human left. Unnoticed by either of them something crawled out of the agents legging.

It was a small worm-like tendril of black and red. Its center was strangely square-shaped, the creature quickly squirmed over to one of the walls, finally catching the attention of little red. She felt herself tense slightly in preparation for whatever came next, the creature split open depositing a deck of cards on the ground before making its way up the wall. She continued to watch its bizarre behavior, the creature stopped pressing itself into a small crevice in the wall seemingly disappearing into it.

The creature quickly reemerged landing on the ground with a flop, it then did something even stranger, it started to expand. A hand like shape of tendrils emerging then another and before long a black humanoid mass of tendrils stood before her. Finally, the tendrils seemed to settle forming a man, dressed in a leather jacket, the only thing that stood out about the newly formed man was his pale sickly skin and blue eyes. She rested her hand on her ax just in case.

"Hello, I am Alex Mercer. From what I heard they call you little red?" The man questioned as he reached down to pick up the deck of cards, a gentle smile in place.

"Yeah? Why the hell are you in my cell?" She practically growled at the strange intruder. She didn't particularly care for the humans around her but she didn't want to deal with them trying to discipline her for something breaking into her room.

"I was hoping to meet my neighbors, its quite boring around here after all. How about a game of cards?" The creature chuckled lightly as he shuffled the deck of cards. Annoyance overflowing red gripped her ax smashing it through the creatures head, pulling back the split head simply pulled itself back together. Seemingly unfazed by her strike.

"That was rude...I heard you're a mercenary, mercenaries in my experience enjoy gambling so how about a bet? You beat me at cards and I won't ever bother you again, If I win we sit down and chat for a while. Interested?" The man offered as he sat down, using the wall as support against his back. Red considered for a moment, she didn't dislike gambling but the creature hadn't offered something she was overly interested in...

"I'll play but when I win I want to know how to get out of here," Red counter-offered with a glare. The creature tilted its head back seemingly thinking over the offer.

"What makes you think I know a way out of here?" The creature asked interest coloring his voice, overall the thing was weird. Not the weirdest she'd seen in this place but it was weird in a different way. Its movements and mannerisms all seemed off, containing a feral edge that most would miss. Fortunately Red was familiar enough to spot a wolf in sheep's clothing when she saw one.

"You got into here, I'm sure you've spotted something before you got here," Red stated with slightly more confidence then she felt, the creature may actually not know anything of the sort, perhaps it couldn't perceive things well while in its worm form but her instincts assured her that wasn't the case.

"Clever, you got a deal, though from what I heard you came here intentionally. Why the change of heart?" The creature questioned calmly as it analyzed her.

"Beat me and I'll tell you," She grinned, there was no way she would lose.

Alex simply widened his already oversized grin exposing more pointed teeth as he dealt her in. She couldn't help but wonder if he even realized grins weren't meant to be that large. Pushing the thoughts to the back of her mind another idea occurred.

"What's stopping us from getting interrupted?"She questioned, Alex grin remained as he continued to deal out the cards nonchalantly.

"The cameras playing a loop of you standing against the wall, and will for the next hour. More then enough time to finish our game," Alex assured calmly as he finished dealing the cards. Redoubling her focus on the cards, she was determined to win.

**I heard Alex mercer being contained and imagined him interacting with the less insane beings lobotomy corp has to offer. I originally planned to have him interact with the scorched girl and old lady but I settled on red because I love the image of her glaring at mercer while they play cards. Notably in the original idea for this I was going to leave the ax stuck in mercers body but that felt to silly despite the humorous idea of mercer playing cards with red while an ax is stuck in his head.  
**

**Note I probably got a bunch wrong as my familiarity with the series is severely outdated and I never dived into the lore. Thus I ended up using the wiki, I also understand mercer probably couldn't do what he did in the above story but I wanted to set up the idea of mercer interacting with these beings.**


End file.
